The present invention relates to the field of arranging translations, particularly interlinear translations of two languages that read in opposite directions.
There are many different ways of arranging a page to display a translation from one language to another, the simplest of which being simply displaying the two languages adjacently. Such layouts, however, do not answer the demands of readers who wish to know how each word and phrase in the translation corresponds to that of the original language. Such a translational correspondence may be word-for-word, word-for-phrase or phrase-for-phrase correspondence. Interlinear translations, where lines of original text are interspersed with lines of the translation, do provide such a translational correspondence between the original text and its translation. An interlinear arrangement of a text in a first language, and its translation into a second language running in the same direction as the first language, can provide both translational correspondence between the two texts while maintaining the natural direction of both languages and hence the readability of both texts.
Many languages, such as English, are written and read from left to right across a page. Some languages, such as Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Urdu, Farsi and Syriac are written and read in the right to left direction. The interlinear arrangement of the translation of a left to right language to a right to left language, or vice versa, is particularly problematic. In such an instance, if translational correspondence between the original text and its translation is maintained, the natural direction of the translation language is lost, reducing the readability of the translated text.
Reference is now made to FIG. 1, which is a page of the prior art arrangement of an interlinear translation of the first page of the Hebrew Bible into English, taken from The Interlinear Hebrew-Greek-English Bible, Jay P. Green, Sr., Editor, published by Associated Publishers and Authors, USA. In FIG. 1, the Hebrew text is written in its normal right to left direction, and each meaningful unit in the Hebrew, typically a single word, but sometimes more than one word, has its corresponding English translation positioned below it., thus providing translational correspondence between the two texts. As shown in FIG. 1, the first meaningful unit of the bible in Hebrew is the word  which is translated as xe2x80x9cIn the beginningxe2x80x9d. The translation unit xe2x80x9cIn the beginningxe2x80x9d is placed beneath the Hebrew word, and split onto two lines. As can be clearly seen, within the translation unit, the English phrase is written from right to left, i.e. xe2x80x9cthe inxe2x80x9d, and not xe2x80x9cin thexe2x80x9d beginning. The prior art arrangement of FIG. 1 does not maintain the natural direction of the language of translation, reducing the readability of the translated text.
There has been a long-felt need in the art for a method of arranging a translation of a right to left language into a left to right language, and vice versa, on a page whereby translational correspondence between the original text and its translation are maintained, while maximizing the readability of the translated text.
The disclosures of each of the publications mentioned in this section and in other sections of the specification, are hereby incorporated by reference, each in its entirety.
The present invention seeks to provide a new method for the interlinear arrangement of a first text and its translation into a second language running in the opposite direction from the direction of the language of the first text, in which the translational correspondence between the first text and its translation are maintained, and the readability of the translated text is maximized. The present invention minimizes the major drawbacks associated with prior art interlinear translations, in that the maintenance of translational correspondence between the first text and its translation causes the translated text to be positioned against the natural direction of the language of the translated text. The methods of the present invention, particularly surrounding translation units with grouping symbols, and providing directionality symbols between the translation units, maximize the readability of the translated text, especially in an interlinear arrangement.
There is thus provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method for arranging a first text in a first language having a first direction and comprising a plurality of meaningful units, and a translation of the first text into a second text in a second language having a second, opposite, direction and comprising a plurality of translation units, each of the translation units being a translation of a corresponding meaningful unit of the first text. The method includes positioning the first and second texts such that the first text reads in the first direction, and the translation units of the second text, each reading in the second direction, are positioned vertically adjacent to the corresponding meaningful units of the first text. The method further includes surrounding at least one translation unit with a first type of grouping symbols, and positioning directionality symbols indicating the first direction, between horizontally adjacent translation units of the second text.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the first language may be either a textual language which is comprised of words, or an ideographic language which is comprised of ideograms. Independently, the second language may also be either a textual language which is comprised of words, or an ideographic language which is comprised of ideograms.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the first language is a textual language, the meaningful units of the first text are single words or groups of more than one word. In an alternative embodiment, when the first language is an ideographic language, the meaningful units of the first text are single ideograms or groups of more than one ideogram.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, when the second language is a textual language, the translation units of the second text are single words or groups of more than one word. In an alternative embodiment, when the second language is an ideographic language, the translation units of the second text are single ideograms or groups of more than one ideogram.
Also in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the step of surrounding at least one translation unit with a first type of grouping symbols comprises surrounding only those translation units comprising more than one word or ideogram, leaving single words or ideograms unsurrounded.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the step of surrounding at least one translation unit with a first type of grouping symbols comprises surrounding all the translation units.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the meaningful units of the first text are translationally correlated with at least one corresponding word or ideogram of the translation, to form translation units in the second text corresponding to the meaningful units of the first text.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention at least one word or ideogram of the translation is translationally correlated with the meaningful units of the first text, to form translation units in the second text corresponding to the meaningful units of the first text.
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the meaningful units of the first text are surrounded with a second type of grouping symbols, different from the first type of grouping symbols surrounding the translation units of the second text. Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the first and second types of grouping symbols may be selected from { }, ( ), [ ],  less than   greater than , , , | |, ┌ ┐, └ ┘, , ⊂ ⊃, ¦ ¦, , , xe2x80x9c xe2x80x9d, xe2x80x98 xe2x80x99, or /  .
Also in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the translation units of the second text are positioned beneath the corresponding meaningful units of the first text. In an alternative embodiment, the translation units of the second text are positioned above the corresponding meaningful units of the first text.
Further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the first and second texts are positioned interlinearly.
Still further in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the direction of the first language is left to right and the direction of the second language is right to left, and the directionality symbols positioned between adjacent translation units of the second text indicate the left to right direction. Preferably left to right indicating directionality symbols are selected from xe2x86x92, , , or  greater than .
Additionally in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the direction of the first language is right to left and the direction of the second language is left to right, and the directionality symbols positioned between adjacent translation units of the second text indicate the right to left direction. Preferably right to left indicating directionality symbols are selected from ←, , , , , or  less than .
In a preferred embodiment, left to right languages include languages such as Latin, Slavic and Cyrillic languages including, but not limited to English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Italian, Polish, Dutch and Russian. Right to left languages include Semitic languages such as Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Farsi and Syriac.
Also in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention the first text is the Old Testament and the first language is Hebrew which has a right to left direction.